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Treating ringworm in cats

alwaysonthego

Just wondering if you can treat ringworm in cats from home with anti-fungus cream and or other home remedies etc...
Has anyone done this with sucess - if so what did you use.

Could do with out another trip to the vets .....:eek:

Appreciate any info/advice

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Lawrence1895

First thing coming into my mind was, if ringworm can spread from the cat to his owners. I remember a guy from work having some issue with that some month ago.

I would go to the vet, just to be 100% sure.

The Sweeper

You can treat all ringworm with a topical antifungal cream.

The problem with cats is they groom and the little buggers will lick it off. They also spread ringworm far more prevalently because of their constant grooming - you know it's a fungus that makes the hair shaft brittle - well cats shed hair everywhere.

It also depends on the severity of the outbreak. If you have only one pet, you could treat the ringworm by shaving or clipping the ringy areas and applying topical neat betadine to the rings twice a day. Supplement the diet with something like nutrigel to boost the immune system, and keep your vacuuming up to date, plus put an old blanket or pet rug on the sofa where the cat likes to sleep and swap it out every night with a new one and put the old one in the wash.

Even untreated, most ringworm cases resolve themselves inside six weeks.

These parameters change, however, if you have more than one animal, if your animal is very young or very old or if you have an immunocompromised family member living at home - e.g. someone elderly, a small child, or someone who's ill or undergoing chemotherapy for instance.

Ringworm can get very bad if it infects a host who doesn't have the immune system to battle it. It can also cause other complications in such a host.

You seem to have been to the vet recently - if your cat has been treated for other illnesses or injuries their immune system can be low, which would explain the ringworm.

Another tip is to take a human vitamin C tablet - it needs to be pure ascorbic acid with no additives - and add it, crushed, to the cat's food. Cats can't absorb more than 250mg at a time, so if you can imagine a 500mg tablet - one quarter of that tablet, so about 125mg, is enough at one meal. Cats make their own vitamin C but it can be depleted in times of stress or illness and a boost over a short term can help.

meoklmrk91

alwaysonthego wrote: »

Just wondering if you can treat ringworm in cats from home with anti-fungus cream and or other home remedies etc...
Has anyone done this with sucess - if so what did you use.

Could do with out another trip to the vets .....:eek:

Appreciate any info/advice

I find that it is much easier to take a trip to the vets, as ringworm is a zoonosis it can be easily transferred from pet to owner and I personally would not want to run that risk as it can last quite a while and can pretty much be anywhere on the body, I know someone who got it on the top of their head, they had to deal with a large bald patch and it ruined their self confidence, now a long while after treatment they still have some small patches.

janmaree

You might think about using coconut oil, it has anti-fungal properties as well as being anti-viral and anti-bacterial. It can be rubbed onto the affected areas and also mixed into food. I give our dog 2 teaspoons per day for her aching joints, it's thick like lard but it mixes in easily and I also add it to the cats food for ringworm and parasite control. It doesn't matter if they lick it off, they're taking it in their food anyway. It's a relatively cheap option, it can't do any harm and the vet can't do much other than give you expensive medicine for the cat that you'll be administering for many weeks anyway. Ringworm is a real nuisance and yes, it's REALLY easily transferred from pet to owner but normally, it's not exactly life-threatening so what is there to lose by giving it a try? If nothing else, the coconut oil will be good overall for the cat and it's also extremely good for the owner! I take it in my coffee and put it in smoothies, it's very nice and so, so good for you. Good luck, whichever way you go.

The Sweeper

I'd refute the idea that ringworm is easily transferred from pet to owner. If the owner is immunocompromised, has broken skin on the hands, arms or face (so they may have contact with the fungus through the cuts on their hands, or transfer spores from their hands to cuts on their face) or observes poor hygiene precautions, then it can happen.

I've dealt with ringworm in a house full of my own animals twice now, and have managed to contain it to one animal (in a house of seven) and avoided getting it myself and my OH has avoided getting it. When I helped out at the shelter there were often ringwormy kittens and nobody to date working there has managed to get ringworm from one of the fungus kitties. You need to observe hygiene precautions but it's often touted as a massive issue when really it's not. (Sadly, many shelters here will PTS ringwormy kittens because they can't rehome them with ringworm and they can't afford the resource of containing them for six weeks while they clear up.)

Hygiene precautions:

Always wear gloves when applying cream to the fungal spots, or wash hands thoroughly before and after if using cotton buds to apply betadine.

Vacuum and mop floors regularly. Wash bedding regularly. Do not allow the ringwormy animal on the beds or on the sofa - and if you can't keep them off the sofa, put on a light blanket or old towel, keep them on that and throw it in the washing machine last thing every evening.

A trip to the vet won't prevent the transfer of ringworm to the owner. Oral ringworm treatments are extremely harsh on a cat's system so if you can treat without resorting to meds then you'll be fare better off.

You need to keep a clean house if you're going to successfully tackle ringworm, so if you're living in a house where you haven't vacuumed in a month, the place is full of soft furnishings and clutter and you've wall to wall carpet in every room, it'll be a lot harder for you to prevent it spreading to other people or animals in the home.

janmaree

I have to stand over what I said about ringworm being easily picked up and I haven't found that it's necessary to have broken skin at all, I know because I have been a "ringwormy kitten" myself, if a little long in the tooth!!! The spores can survive for over 12 months and a cat can easily become a carrier with no obvious signs of ringworm at all. I agree that good hygiene practices are necessary and I admit to being borderline OCD myself when it comes to handwashing, (just wish some others were the same!), but I still got it and have the odd patch from time to time so it is highly contagious and very difficult to control. By the way, I have picked it up from cats that don't come into the house at all so there are no hard and fast rules and just because you get ringworm, it doesn't mean you're a lousy housekeeper! Please don't think I'm arguing with The Sweeper as I'm not, it's just that I do have some personal experience of this, I've done a great deal of research on the subject and have access to a lot of veterinary advice. It's hard to beat the spores but a little more reassurance for prospective owners could spare those poor little mites, so many are denied lives as precious loving pets over something relatively trivial. For goodness sake, it's not that long ago that ringworm was a simple fact of life, certainly for those on the farm. It can be dealt with but there's no need to panic. Now if we had rabies here, well...................

Lawrence1895

The Sweeper wrote: »

I'd refute the idea that ringworm is easily transferred from pet to owner. If the owner is immunocompromised, has broken skin on the hands, arms or face (so they may have contact with the fungus through the cuts on their hands, or transfer spores from their hands to cuts on their face) or observes poor hygiene precautions, then it can happen.

I've dealt with ringworm in a house full of my own animals twice now, and have managed to contain it to one animal (in a house of seven) and avoided getting it myself and my OH has avoided getting it. When I helped out at the shelter there were often ringwormy kittens and nobody to date working there has managed to get ringworm from one of the fungus kitties. You need to observe hygiene precautions but it's often touted as a massive issue when really it's not. (Sadly, many shelters here will PTS ringwormy kittens because they can't rehome them with ringworm and they can't afford the resource of containing them for six weeks while they clear up.)

Hygiene precautions:

Always wear gloves when applying cream to the fungal spots, or wash hands thoroughly before and after if using cotton buds to apply betadine.

Vacuum and mop floors regularly. Wash bedding regularly. Do not allow the ringwormy animal on the beds or on the sofa - and if you can't keep them off the sofa, put on a light blanket or old towel, keep them on that and throw it in the washing machine last thing every evening.

A trip to the vet won't prevent the transfer of ringworm to the owner. Oral ringworm treatments are extremely harsh on a cat's system so if you can treat without resorting to meds then you'll be fare better off.

You need to keep a clean house if you're going to successfully tackle ringworm, so if you're living in a house where you haven't vacuumed in a month, the place is full of soft furnishings and clutter and you've wall to wall carpet in every room, it'll be a lot harder for you to prevent it spreading to other people or animals in the home.

That's what happened to the guy in work, I was talking about. He was scraped by his cat a few times, whilst the cat had ringworm already. And the cat slept in the same bed.
I guess, he wasn't aware of the dangers.

angeline

I had this issue with a stray kitten. You really do need to make that trip to the vet. Also, it is indeed highly contagious no matter how careful you are.

SerialComplaint

Our 13-year-old little cat had a small patch of missing hair last night, and a much larger patch today, right on her back between her shoulder blades. Otherwise, she seems to be in perfect condition. Doesn't seem to be any sign of scratching or fighting around the patch. Does this sound like ringworm, or.....

The Sweeper

Have you given her a spot-on treatment recently?

Basically if you're not sure you should go to the vet so you can get a diagnosis.

SerialComplaint

The Sweeper wrote: »

Have you given her a spot-on treatment recently?

Basically if you're not sure you should go to the vet so you can get a diagnosis.

No, we haven't given her a spot-on or any other treatment recently. Funds are tight at present, so I don't want to waste a vet fee to be told that she just got a bite from another moggy!

summer_ina_bowl

You can get hibiscrub in most chemists (most people are familiar with it as the pink liquid used to wash hands in hospitals). Dilute it about half and half with water, rub it into the affected area - keep the cat busy for five minutes or so (feeding time or serious play) so that they cannot lick it off. then wipe away the excess with a damp cloth. Repeat daily for 3-4 days. Works a treat

For those who want to know, chlorhexidine is the active ingredient. It's an anti-microbial which I've successfully treated ringworm with many times in the past on both cats and dogs. In fact, it is great tack and I'd recommend all pet owners to keep a bottle

When diluted to suit, it can be used for almost any skin wound or infection - fantastic for hot-spots if you catch them early, and although not sold or promoted as an anti-parasitic I can vouch that a deep scrub (5 minute wait before rinsing) with hibiscrub (repeated every second day 3-4 times) will do wonders for mange (especially if the mange is complicated by bacterial infection) - and it is very safe so long as you rinse or wipe the area if using it in a strong concentration. Many (if not most) vets use it to prep skin for surgeries. Chlorhexidine is also an active ingredient in many veterinary products (i.e. malaseb - which has another antifungal ingredient) but hibiscrub is far kinder to the pocket

Anyhows, sorry for the rant. I HEART HIBISCRUB!!

(vet nurse)